by Jillian Hart
“I trust your preparations, Marshal.”
Either she trusted him the way she said or she was just too darned stubborn to admit she had misgivings.
“You’re the most fearless female I’ve ever met.”
“Thank you.”
“Did the tea warm you up?”
“A little.”
He draped his arm across her shoulder and felt her trembling. Taking both cups, he set them on the floor. “Lie down and rest. I’ll keep you warm.”
She gave him a questioning look.
“Look at Hayden and Jillian, warm as a litter of pups.”
She eased onto the divan and he stretched out behind her, wrapping his arm around her and conforming his legs to the bent shape of hers. He made sure his belt buckle didn’t poke her.
Her clean scent, like soap and fresh cotton, teased his senses, a hundred times more evocative than a cloying perfume. Against his chin, her hair was cool and silky, catching against his whiskers when he moved to pull the blankets up over them.
“Better?” he asked.
“I would have been just fine.”
“I needed some comforting tonight,” he told her.
“What sort of comfort did you expect I’d provide?”
“I may have had a few disrespectful thoughts about you, but while you’re in my care, I’m committed to keep you safe—safe from me as well as from anyone else.”
“Supposing the comfort I asked for came in the form of a kiss?” she asked. “What then?”
A dart of anticipation arrowed through his chest. “I’d be obliged to comfort you any way that eased your troubled mind.”
“A request like that would be forward. Definitely unseemly.”
“Desperate times call for desperate sacrifices.”
“Indeed.” She rolled to her back, bringing her closer, her hip pressing against him. Her warm softness was a fierce temptation. He wanted to reach for her and pull her flush against him. But he steeled himself.
Jonah rarely acted on impulse. Impulse got a person into trouble—or got him dead. He prided himself on thinking things through and making wise choices, even in a tight situation. But he didn’t want to think over her request for a kiss. He simply wanted to kiss Meredith Abbott.
She raised one hand to lie her palm against his jaw. Her cool touch set his already tingling nerve endings ablaze. Without letting another second slip away, he leaned toward her.
Meredith expected him to claim her mouth in forceful urgency, but he didn’t. He covered her lips with his in a tender exploration that surprised and delighted her. She hadn’t expected the warmth of his lips…or the pleasurable softness.
She had never anticipated a touch so gentle and innocent could take her breath away and create inside her a deep yearning for more. She had to be crazy to want this man she barely knew to kiss her. She had to be shameless to enjoy it so thoroughly.
What she’d imagined might be awkward, bumping noses or stilted breathing was instead the most natural experience in the world. The mechanics of a kiss didn’t enter her mind once, while the pleasure and sensuality of the moment took complete control.
Indeed, she was shameless. It was the most instinctive thing in the world to raise her hand and caress the contours of his jaw, thread her fingers into his satin-soft thick hair and grasp his scalp as though holding him securely would satisfy her growing desire to get closer.
Jonah touched her, too, his hand now stroking her shoulder and upper arm through her clothing, moving until his fingertips met skin above her collar and sent shivers along her neck and then her cheek. With a single fingertip, he drew a circle around her ear, eliciting a breathless sound of pleasure from her throat.
She drew back slightly and he released her. She pressed her forehead to his and remained that way with his breath fluttering across her chin, her lips tingling and her heart racing inside her breast.
“I lied,” she managed breathlessly.
His voice was hoarse when he asked, “About what?”
“About kissing Ivan Kingsley.” Doubly shameless to confess her lack of sophistication! “I never have.”
Jonah moved back to look into her eyes.
“I got impatient waiting for him,” she explained. “The time never seemed right to question his interest. I figured if he really wanted to, he would have. Don’t you suppose?”
“Something’s wrong with the man.”
She smiled.
The cat chose that moment to leap onto the divan, obviously surprised at not finding Meredith alone. Balancing on her hip, the fluffy feline took a wary step back.
“It’s all right, Hercules.” She stroked her pet’s long white fur to assure him he was welcome. “You may lie with us. Come on.”
Jonah figured nestling with a cat was a small price to pay for the pleasure of cozying up with this spellbinding woman. He wasn’t sure what it was about her that drew him, because according to appearances she was untouchable. Beautiful. Rich and pampered. Headstrong and competent. But here they were, sharing a bed for the night…engaging in a first kiss…?.
A heart-stopping first kiss.
He’d been teasing about desperate times, but their frightening situation obviously had a lot, if not everything, to do with her request for a kiss. He hoped the kiss had given her the comfort she needed to rest. He didn’t have any crazy idea that she saw something in him that revealed even an ounce of compatibility, because there was nothing. He was a loner.
He wasn’t going to take advantage of the situation or her uncharacteristic vulnerability. He had a duty to perform, and she’d unwittingly become part of it. He had to keep her safe and deliver her to her family…and the man waiting for her.
The fool who had never even kissed her.
Jonah wanted to feel bad about that—about kissing her when he wasn’t the one with intentions of marriage…but he couldn’t. The memory of their kiss would last him a good long while. And he didn’t regret it one bit. He hoped she didn’t, either.
Once they got out of here, they’d both go about their lives. He’d give her no reason for remorse.
Her soft even breathing told him she slept.
He closed his eyes and tried to do the same.
Sounds outside the Pullman woke him.
Jonah jumped over Meredith to grab a rifle and dart to the window. In the breaking dawn, he made out two men bent over a trunk toppled in the snow.
Behind him, Meredith asked, “What is it?”
“It’s Bloom’s men. Pile all the blankets and pillows on top of Jillian and order her to lie still.”
She did as he ordered, assuring Jillian that the marshal was going to take care of them. The sound of Meredith cocking the Winchester assured him she was prepared for instructions.
“Help me set the divan on end in front of that window.”
Hayden helped the adults maneuver the piece of furniture into place.
Jonah checked outside once more. “Now the couch over that one.”
They had all the windows blocked now, save one on each side, from which they’d fire, and they left the pillows stuffed into the deep sills. “Hayden, grab me the hammer I left near the door.”
The boy obeyed and they took their positions. Jonah peered out. The two outlaws had discovered a bottle of liquor and were passing it back and forth.
Jonah had a decision to make. Obviously Bloom’s gang had gone straight to the mail car without finding what they wanted and were now searching the baggage. This Pullman gleamed in the sunlight; it couldn’t have missed their scrutiny. He’d bet a dime to a dollar there was someone standing outside the door in wait.
When the men didn’t find the gold, they’d do everything in their power to get inside this car. He could only guess how many there were, but he could eliminate two right now.
Another man in a parka stepped into view.
Three.
“Hand me the Winchester,” he whispered and reached back.
The solid barrel pressed into his pal
m. He set his rifle down and instinctively glanced at this one, assuring himself it was ready to fire.
He picked up the hammer with his left hand, wedged the barrel beside the pillow, held his breath and took aim.
Chapter Seven
He broke the window, dropped the hammer, then quickly regained his grip on the rifle. Three rapid successive shots.
Three men toppled over in the snow.
With any luck half of their adversaries were out of the picture. But Jonah couldn’t be sure. And now those remaining would be fighting mad.
A loud curse rang out. “Shit, Harry, somebody just shot ’em dead!”
“Slide the hammer to Meredith,” he ordered Hayden.
Gunfire erupted, as he’d expected. The sound of bullets pinging off the side of the Pullman had the terrified little girl screaming beneath the covers.
“Stay put,” Meredith said sternly. Glass broke behind him.
He glanced over his shoulder to find Meredith at the window, the hammer already on the floor, a Spencer repeating rifle in her white-knuckled grip.
Near him sat Hayden, ready with a revolver and a hinged walnut case filled with bullets. It had been the boy who’d handed him the Winchester. “Good job, son. We’re going to be fine.”
Hayden nodded, his brown eyes round as saucers.
Silence reigned for several minutes.
Meredith’s heart pounded so hard, she could hear blood pulsing through her body at an alarming rate. She took several deep breaths of the cold air to calm herself. She wouldn’t be of any help if she couldn’t hold her hands steady or see straight.
One at a time, she wiped her clammy hands on her wrinkled skirt, thankful she’d fallen asleep in her clothing. All the while she kept her alert gaze on the view outside the window.
Jillian cried into the blankets. “I peed in the bed,” she sobbed.
“It’s okay, Jilly,” Hayden said to her.
“We’ll get you clean clothes when we can,” Meredith said softly. “Try not to cry, all right, sweetie?”
“Arright. I twy.”
Movement caught her eye, and Meredith jumped. Below the line of her vision, right below where she stood, she spotted the top of a battered brown hat, moving quickly.
“Someone’s right under the window!” she gasped at Jonah.
“He can’t get through the wall, Meredith,” he told her. “Don’t look around the pillow to show your face, but keep your gun pointed out. Don’t be afraid to fire if you get a chance. Remember, he’d shoot you if he got a clear shot.”
“That’s comforting.”
“Wasn’t supposed to be. It’s a fact. Shoot or be shot.”
“Okay.” She swallowed hard. Was the outlaw lurking right on the other side of the exterior wall of the Pullman? The disturbing thought elicited a shudder that darted down her spine. “Thank you, Daddy, for buying a steel-fortified railcar,” she whispered.
A craggy, whisker-stubbled face beneath shaggy hair and a brown hat sprang up in front of her.
She cut off her scream midway to panic, aimed and squeezed the trigger. The hat sailed backward. The man grabbed what was left of his bloody ear and fell below her line of vision.
“I didn’t get a good shot, but I hit him!”
Jonah didn’t have time to respond, because at that moment more shots were fired. Glass splintered as the windows behind the pieces of furniture broke.
Hayden crawled across the floor and pushed a revolver toward her. “Use this ’un when that runs out.”
From the west, fifty or sixty feet from Meredith’s side of the car, two riders forced their struggling horses to wade through snow. One of them was the man with the bloody ear. The deep drifts hindered the animals’ speed, making the riders easy targets.
The outlaws fired at the Pullman. Meredith’s first instinct was to duck down and hide. She had to resist the urge to flee, however. There was no place to go anyway, and if she didn’t do her part to hold them at bay, these outlaws could overtake them.
She leveled the rifle, peered along the barrel and squeezed the trigger three more times.
Hadn’t they been expecting resistance on this side of the car? Why had they ridden into plain view? One of them slid from the saddle, crouched behind his horse and led it back the way they’d come.
His partner yelled at him and threw a canteen, apparently hitting the first man, because the fellow yelped. Meredith got a shot at the second outlaw as he ran to catch up. He crumpled to his knees. From that position, he raised his arm and fired at her.
She ducked as the rest of the window glass splintered inward and rained across her hair and shoulders.
“You all right?” Jonah yelled.
“Yes.” She shook off the shards, then crept back up to peer outside. Neither man was in sight. “I got one in the leg.”
“Here.” Hayden shoved a revolver at her.
She exchanged it for the rifle, and he hurried to reload.
The interior of the Pullman smelled like gunpowder, but the acrid odor soon dissipated in the frigid air flowing through the broken windows. “Put on your coat and hat, Hayden.”
He did so and dragged her fur coat to her. “Wear this, Miss Abbott.”
After a quick search of the landscape, she slipped on her coat, glad for its heavy warmth.
“Throw out the gold and we’ll ride out!” came a male voice from Jonah’s side of the car.
“I don’t have it!” he shouted back.
“Tell me where it is.”
“Can’t recall.”
A bullet dinged off the exterior of the car, punctuating the outlaw’s frustration.
Jonah glanced at her. “How many were on that side?”
“Two, from what I could tell.”
“Two over here,” he said. “And two out of the four are wounded.”
“Maybe they’ll give up.”
“Not likely. With three of ’em dead, each one gets a bigger cut of the gold now. They’ll wait us out. Hope to run us out of ammunition and food.”
“Is that likely?”
“We’ve got a dozen or more of your father’s guns and ammunition for each. More weapons than a few men can carry on horseback. This car is like a steel fort.”
“I never appreciated it when my father extolled the praises of this rolling hotel,” she lamented.
More bullets hit the exterior of the car and several slugs pounded into the bottom of the plush divan covering one window and hit the back of the antique cabinet at another.
“My father was wise to keep all his first editions at home.”
Jonah slanted her a glance to see if she was being derisive, and assured himself she was.
A bullet struck the chimney of an oil lamp affixed to the wall, shattering the glass. They held their positions.
After that things got quiet. Jonah didn’t let up on his vigilance. They waited until half an hour had passed.
“Take Jillian to the necessary,” he said softly. “Crawl and keep her as quiet as you can. When you come back, Hayden will take a turn. Grab something we can eat and drink.” He looked at Hayden. “You’re doing real fine, son. Remember to keep your head down.”
“Yessir.”
Meredith laid the revolver beside the rifle on the floor and crawled to where Jillian lay. “Come on, sweetie. We’re going to clean you up a little.”
The child’s brown hair was a tumble of knots, her face red from crying. She cast her brother and Jonah each a look before joining Meredith on her hands and knees and heading back through the corridor.
“I thought o’ sumpthin’ bad, Marshal.”
Jonah looked at Hayden. “What is it?”
“What if they throw burnin’ torches through a window?”
“That’s a real possibility,” he replied honestly. “That’s why I put blankets under the melting snow in the big tub. We have to keep a watch out and, if something catches fire, put it out with a wet blanket. Can you help me check for fire? We have to keep a
n eye on the other rooms, too. The windows are small, but a torch could fit.”
“I’ll help.”
“What made you think of that?”
“My pa told me that he was locked up once and his friends throwed a torch into the sheriff’s office to get the lawman to run out. When the sheriff ran out, they went in and got my pa.”
Jonah had wondered often about these kids’ parents. This story made it sound as though their father had been busted from jail. He’d bet anything the sheriff in this story got shot. He knew how a jailbreak took place. “Why was your pa in jail?”
“They said he robbed a bank, but they got him mixed up with somebody what looked like him.”
Jonah said nothing, only nodded to say he’d heard. The children’s father was a fugitive.
Jonah could find people who didn’t want to be found.
Meredith took Jonah’s watch point so he could make his own trip to the necessary, he returned quickly.
They moved Jillian’s mattress and bedding to the corridor, where there were no windows. Meredith supplied her with a box of jewelry to keep her entertained. The girl tried on an emerald necklace and pinned an opal-and-diamond brooch to her plain cotton shirt.
“Likely they’ll lie low until dark.” Jonah checked from his vantage point and then crossed to speak to Meredith. “They’re probably cozy in one of the other two cars for now, taking turns sleeping. Once it’s dark, I could slip out and move along the ravine to the south in hopes of discovering their whereabouts.”
The thought of him going out there terrified her. He could be discovered and killed. “They might be watching for you to do something like that.”
“Most likely.”
“I don’t want you to leave.”
He held up a palm. “All right. I won’t.”
“Promise me.” She kept the urgency from her tone, but her panic was there beneath the surface.
“I swear I won’t leave unless we have no other option left and we both agree.”
“Thank you.” Emotion threatened to rise up. She fought it down. She was a levelheaded woman, up to the challenge of staying alert. She had to help the marshal, needed to protect Hayden and Jillian. She was competent, more than able to do this. She liked the way Jonah’s admiring looks made her feel. She wouldn’t let him down. “This may be my first gunfight, but we’re going to get through this.”